Although nine in 10 Americans understand antibiotics are effective treatments for fighting bacterial infections, more than a third of Americans mistakenly believe the drugs are also effective against viral infections such as the common cold, according to a poll conducted by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

Additionally, while nearly 80 percent of Americans understand that taking antibiotics when they aren’t needed can jeopardize their own health, only 47 percent understood that it can also endanger others. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria can quickly spread through families and communities, creating superbugs which are harder to cure and expensive to treat.

“Antibiotic-resistant infections will claim increasing numbers of lives unless we do more to ensure all Americans take these life-saving drugs only when they are needed and as directed by a doctor,” said Lauri Hicks, a medical director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which collaborated with Pew for the poll.

Roughly 1,900 Americans in 1993 were hospitalized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus (MRSA) infections. By 2005, that number jumped to 368,000. Currently, drug-resistant infections cause 60,000 deaths, eight million additional days in the hospital and an extra $26 billion in health care costs, according to Pew. At the same time, antibiotic research and development programs have decreased, resulting in “superbugs emerging faster than new drugs to fight them,” said Allan Coukell, director of medical programs for Pew.

Electa Draper is the health writer for The Denver Post and has covered every news beat in a 22-year journalism career at three newspapers. She has a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's in journalism.